This invention relates generally to hospital stretchers, and more particularly to stretchers for use in transferring a patient to and from stretcher to bed or operating table.
It is well known to those working in hospitals that, in transferring a patient between a stretcher and a bed or operating table, the stretcher is brought closely alongside the bed so that the patient may then be lifted by hospital attendants or nurses in order to be carried across the gap between the bed and stretcher. This requires two or more persons who are strong enough so as to be able to carry the patient across the gap without dropping the patient.
Various movable top stretchers are known in the art. However, except for a few elaborate and expensive mobile stretchers with movable foundations having vertical and horizontal positions, none provide a relatively inexpensive, practical and stable platform for transferring patients to and from hospital beds and operating tables. The movable top stretchers of the prior are are also very susceptible to tipping when the patient is being moved.